Senate candidate Mark Neumann speaks at Milwaukee Press Club

MILWAUKEE -- In the race for the soon-to-be-open Wisconsin Senate seat, currently held by retiring Senator Herb Kohl, one candidate says his top priority is pork. Former Congressman Mark Neumann stopped by the Milwaukee Press Club Monday, with a sidekick!

Neumann brought a pig with him Monday to the Milwaukee Press Club to make a point: he's serious about slashing the federal budget. "It starts at the front line, and ends at the last line of the budget. There's pork-barrel spending, wasteful government spending throughout that budget," Neumann said.

In his opening statement, Neumann admitted that his race isn't the biggest in the state. "I believe our top priority in the state of Wisconsin right now is to re-elect Governor Scott Walker and his entire team," Neumann said.

The state Democratic Party says Neumann had it right when he criticized Walker two years ago when they were both running for governor. "Mark Neumann, now that he's running for another office, I think he's changing his tune, but I think he did a very good job pointing out Scott Walker didn't balance the budget here in Milwaukee County, and he actually increased taxes," Graeme Zielinski, the spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party said.

Neumann says despite past disagreements, he fully supports what Walker is doing now. "I think when you look at some of the situations they claimed a year and a half ago were going to bring Wisconsin to its knees, it just plain has not happened, and they've actually balanced the budget without raising taxes on the people," Neumann said.

Of course, the two sides also disagree on how to balance the budget in Washington. "At the end of the day, the federal government does not need more money to balance the federal budget," Neumann said. "It's a lot of hypocrisy from another Republican who wants to cut programs like Medicare and Social Security to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires like him," Zielinski said.

Neumann says his plan would give money to Medicare, simply by repealing the "Affordable Health Care Act" known as ObamaCare. He's also listed 150 programs he'd cut to balance the budget.